American Independence Day is upon us and the celebrations include but are not limited to barbecues, picnics, fireworks, etc. We’re reminded of the day in 1776 when the “Founding Fathers” decided to break away from England. The Revolutionary War lasted until 1781 and the Declaration of Independence was distinguished as America’s manifesto for freedom. The mission was accomplished and the United States of America was born.
The celebration and freedom, however, was not for all to enjoy. Only rich white males immediately benefitted from independence. Women were still treated unequally, Native-Americans did not regain their lost land, and poor white men did not enjoy all the rights mentioned in the Declaration and accorded by the new constitution. But worst off were the African-Americans, whom the majority was still enslaved. The newly designated “land of the free” had a large portion of its population still in bondage.
Fredrick Douglass the African American social reformer, a leader of the abolitionist movement and inspiring orator and writer stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves did not have the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. In the following 4th of July speech he reminds Americans that celebrations of “independence” were hollow in 1852.
Reenactment on youtube of Fredrick Douglass’ 4th of July speech in 1852:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR_QOCwVR g8
Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful....
But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.-The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.
Frederick DouglassFrederick Douglass, the great Negro abolitonist, spoke these words in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, July 5, 1852. As editor of the abolitionist newspaper, the Frederick Douglass' Paper (originally the North Star), Douglass had become a leader in the fight against slavery. In 1852 the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society chose him to address their Fourth of July meeting. Douglass, in turn, asked the prominent Rochester businessman and abolitionist, Samuel Drummond Porter, to take part in the celebration,
Native American Perspective
Simon Moya-Smith
One thing an Indian understands, and so do white people on some atavistic level, is that Independence Day is a celebration of white, European Independence from a taxing, belittling and brutal English monarchy. The English nobles were vicious, unrelenting bastards upon the British citizens of the 13 original colonies. These carnage-laden battles of the 1700s are the earliest recounting of America’s White-on-White crime endemic. Lately, though, these battles of white European descendant vs. white European descendant have significantly diminished, and now can be found commonly at the Gap during 50-percent off Independence Day sales. How many pockets can you fit on that fuckin’ khaki? Really. …
I don’t celebrate the Fourth because it’s not a celebration of American Indian Independence from a tyrannical government. American Indian rights were trod upon during, before and after July 4, 1776, my dear Tea Party member. You want to talk about rights being trampled like grapes at a vineyard? Come talk to me sometime.
On July 4, 2011, I will be celebrating American Indian fortitude and diligence. I don’t owe a smidgen of a smarmy smile to the Founding Fathers or their non-Indian, Indian-hating legacy. I do, though, owe my defiant allegiance and unending gratitude to the Old Ones, my indigenous elders who suffered the full might of the cavalry, Westward Expansion, Manifest Destiny, Divine Right, the Gold Rush, the Trail of Tears, Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, and, yes, the Founding Fathers.
As Euro-Americans suck back hot beer and munch moo meat on the Fourth this year, I, in fact, will mourn and celebrate respectively. I will remember my elders. I will be grateful for their sacrifice. And then I’ll celebrate. I’ll celebrate their memory. I’ll celebrate their will and honor and courage and love of their people and home. I will remember that while the Founding Fathers and their ilk were demanding Justice! Inalienable Rights! Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness!, their leather, buttoned Euro boots were treading the rights of Indian Peoples with a Herculean force. There’s a whale of hypocrisy embedded in this touted holiday.
Rest assured, folks, I understand why European descendants embrace the Fourth like a brand new flat screen television. But you need to also understand my position, that while the Founding Fathers were frolicking in their newly achieved independence, they were simultaneously plotting more ethnic cleansing campaigns against those pesky Indian men, women and children. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Fine Print: But not for those injuns, niggers or gooks; not even the women.)
The Fourth is not a day I join in joviality of encroaching D.W.E.M.s (Dead, White, European Males), but a day I remember my people and their sacrifice. Burn some sage. Light a pipe. Join a sweat. Cut your hair. Remember the Indians of Old on the Fourth, and celebrate loudly the continuity of the relentless Indian will. Hoka.
Still Not A Mascot,
-Simon Moya-Smith
What are Americans celebrating today?
According to the 2010 U.S. Census this is what we are celebrating today as a result of eight years of the Republican George Bush in the Whitehouse and now a Congress ruled by Republicans who have vowed to make President Obama a one term president despite the progress made, albeit slowly, to recover economically from unpaid for wars and tax policies that favor the rich and corporations.
The U.S. Census Bureau announced in 2010, median household income declined, the poverty rate increased and the percentage without health insurance coverage was not statistically different from the previous year.
Real median household income in the United States in 2010 was $49,445, a 2.3 percent decline from the 2009 median.
The nation's official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, up from 14.3 percent in 2009 ─ the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. There were 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009 ─ the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.
The number of people without health insurance coverage rose from 49.0 million in 2009 to 49.9 million in 2010, while the percentage without coverage −16.3 percent - was not statistically different from the rate in 2009.
Poverty
- The poverty rate in 2010 was the highest since 1993 but was 7.3 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available. Since 2007, the poverty rate has increased by 2.6 percentage points.
- In 2010, the family poverty rate and the number of families in poverty were 11.7 percent and 9.2 million, respectively, up from 11.1 percent and 8.8 million in 2009.
- The poverty rate and the number in poverty increased for both married-couple families (6.2 percent and 3.6 million in 2010 from 5.8 percent and 3.4 million in 2009) and female-householder-with-no-husband-prese nt families (31.6 percent and 4.7 million in 2010 from 29.9 percent and 4.4 million in 2009). For families with a male householder no wife present, the poverty rate and the number in poverty were not statistically different from 2009 (15.8 percent and 880,000 in 2010).
Americans can celebrate again after November when we can be certain President Obama has been re-elected and the disenfranchised will continue to have a voice to bring Americans out of poverty and back to prosperity when everyone living in the United States can celebrate living in the land of the free.
Resources
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?p age=2475
http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/ archives/income_wealth/cb11-157.html
